


The Reaction of Panic

by TenSpencerRiedPlease



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Asexual Jughead, Betty and Veronica have a gay panic, F/F, Jughead has an asexual panic, M/M, My First Work in This Fandom, aggressively bisexual Veronica, and 'done with this heterosexual nonsense' Kevin, and the Archie has a gay panic, but everyone solves their problems in the end, confused Archie, featuring bisexual Betty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-20
Updated: 2017-02-20
Packaged: 2018-09-25 22:29:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9849275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenSpencerRiedPlease/pseuds/TenSpencerRiedPlease
Summary: If someone asked Betty about her sexuality a year ago she would have said she was straight, obviously. Sexuality was never something she considered until Veronica kissed her that day at cheerleading tryouts and since then she hasn’t been exactly sure what she’s been feeling.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GoodSourceofFiber](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoodSourceofFiber/gifts).



If someone asked Betty about her sexuality a year ago she would have said she was straight, obviously. But that was before Veronica, that whole mess with Archie, and everything else that’s been happening in Riverdale. Sexuality was never something she considered until Veronica kissed her that day at cheerleading tryouts and since then she hasn’t been exactly sure what she’s been feeling, especially with her feelings for Archie.

“Look, if anyone gets complicated Archie messes its me,” Jughead says, smiling just a bit.

“Um,” she says, pausing for a moment because she wasn’t exactly sure how to phrase what she wanted to say. “It’s sort of… not about Archie? Ish?” There were parts that were about Archie obviously, and Archie and Veronica and that closet but Betty didn’t know how to explain that she was more upset that Veronica and Archie probably kissed and that made her jealous, not angry. Well, she was angry too but mostly because of the emotional aspect. Veronica knew she liked Archie and it hurt to know she just went on and kissed him probably, she wasn’t sure what happened in there and she wasn’t asking, but the image of Veronica and Archie kissing made her more jealous than angry. She wasn’t entirely certain Jughead would get that.

He frowns at her, head tilting to the side a bit, “o…kay? Then what is this about?” he asks.

She debates on saying nothing but she’s been thinking about this too long and she needed to get it off her chest. “Veronica. It’s more of a complicated Veronica mess and Archie is kind of in there too but mostly Veronica.”

Jughead seems to get it right away, thankfully, and nods. “Well, there was that time you two kissed,” he says.

Which was the _problem_ , they kissed but Veronica didn’t mean it, and Betty didn’t even know she wanted it until it happened. And now she was having weird sex dreams about Veronica when she’s never even _thought_ of a woman like that before. It didn’t help that Veronica was always around looking like her gorgeous self too. Honestly what was Betty even supposed to _do_ during that cheer routine with Veronica strutting her stuff in the middle of two lines of cheerleaders? Betty sort of wanted to take a hit off her confidence and kiss her at once. Or take a hit off her confidence by kissing her, that seemed like a good idea.

Except… “that kiss was just for attention Jug. So now I don’t know what to do and I don’t even know where this feeling _came_ from.” Before all she thought about was Archie and now all she thought about was Veronica and there was a little bit of emotional mess from Archie but mostly nothing and… and she was just confused.

“Uh, I don’t know about that. She seems pretty into you to me, I mean I’m not very good at these things, but there are just some things that are really obvious,” Jughead says.

Betty wants to laugh because Veronica is… well she’s Veronica, why would she ever even _have_ an interest in someone like Betty? And… “what if this is just some sort of… I don’t know, a phase or something?” she asks. She’s thought this through, Veronica is the only woman she’s ever considered… _sexually_ and what if this was some sort of false alarm? Then she’d put herself out there and she’s get hurt like she did with Archie and she didn’t want that.

Jughead lets out a sharp laugh and shakes his head, “it isn’t a phase Betty. Trust me, when you start noticing that you feel differently than other people its not fake,” he says confidently, like he knew from experience.

Betty squints at him, “are you gay?” she asks because Kevin could use a date. She wasn’t sure he’d be all that compatible with Jughead but they could try it, see if it worked out. If not they would probably make decent friends.

“No,” Jughead says, laughing.

“Bisexual?” she asks, thinking of the only other orientation that she knew of that was left.

Jughead shakes his head again, “no. Well kind of, but mostly no,” he says.

“Uh…” Betty says, frowning a little bit and trying to figure out what else was left. She opens her mouth again to ask about pansexual, which would explain Jug’s ‘bisexual but not’ comment, but Jughead interrupts.

“I’m asexual. It took awhile to figure out, and I had no clue what it was until a year ago, but it fits,” he tells her.

“A…sexual?” she asks, eyebrows drawing together a little in confusion.

“Yeah, it means I don’t experience sexual attraction,” he tells her, “so like that fluttery feeling or whatever you feel for Veronica? I’ve got none of that, never have and it was pretty confusing at first. I brushed it off too, thought I was a late bloomer or something but that’s not it. And that’s the way it is with you too, trust me, you’ll start looking back and you’ll see signs that you weren’t straight all along.”

Maybe he was right, maybe that would be true but she wasn’t so sure. “Okay, but how does that relate to the sort of bisexual comment you make earlier? Not to like… pry or anything,” she adds hastily.

“Don’t worry about it. I think I might be biromantic, maybe, I don’t know. I mean I like people, not people in Riverdale, but people. So it’s a possibility but also I feel no strong desire to be in a relationship so mostly I’m just here for the food,” he says and Betty laughs, shaking her head. Typical Jughead.

*

“You, you’re the gay best friend. I need some gay best friend advice,” Veronica announces, dropping into a seat across the table from Kevin.

“One, that’s a stereotype, and two, if this is about Betty just kiss her already. Again,” he adds, briefly remembering that cheerleading kiss he just _knew_ Betty has been agonizing over since it happened. His gaydar was good and the queer people stuck together; he knew she wasn’t straight as soon as they started speaking. It was like a sixth sense or something. He knew something was up with Archie too, and Veronica was all but aggressively bisexual. These were just the kinds of things a gay kid knew.

“Okay the first time doesn’t count because it was for attention, and I know she knows that. But now I don’t know how to let her know I like her in more of a gay way that a friend way. And be honest, is this too soon after the Archie thing? I feel like this is too soon,” Veronica says, dropping her head into her hands and looking stressed. Kevin, for one, is annoyed that even stressed she looked gorgeous. That just wasn’t fair to the lowly mortals such as himself.

“You sent her flowers, Ronnie. That’s pretty gay,” he points out.

“They were yellow, everyone knows yellow roses are friendship roses,” Veronica says.

“Then send some red ones, is this really that difficult?” he asks more to himself than Veronica. No, it was not because if there was a gay kid who was interested in him there would be no thinking, only kissing. Actually he did that once and it turned out he made out with a gang member and he’s the Sheriff’s kid. So maybe he should have thought a _little_ first but there are slim pickings in Riverdale, he could hardly be blamed.

“It is if she’s straight, Kevin. Keep up,” Veronica says, half turning to look at Betty across the yard.

“Good lord you two will be the death of me. She is totally into you, literally everyone with basic working senses is into you,” Kevin points out.

“Even you?” Veronica asks sweetly, grinning over her shoulder.

“In a strictly platonic way but yes, I think you’re lovely and you liven the place up a little,” he tells her, smiling.

“Aw, thanks Kev. Seems how I’m so lovely and awesome do you mind… feeling Betty out for me?” she asks, wiggling her eyebrows at him.

He shakes his head and laughs, “fine, I mean she’s hardly my type, but fine,” he says.

“I said feel her _out_ , not feel her _up_ ,” Veronica tells him, laughing. “Leave the feeling her up to me.” Kevin had no problem with that, and it would be nice to have a few more openly gay people around. It was weird being the only one that was out.

*

“Well you’ve dealt with the gay panic thing, how come you can’t deal with _my_ gay panic thing?” Archie asks.

“What gay panic thing?” Betty asks, frowning. And who was Archie even having a gay panic over. Oh god, if it was Kevin he might just die and go to gay heaven and she’d die and go to ‘why do all my friends want to kiss Archie?’ hell. She was already in metaphorical purgatory for wanting to kiss Archie herself. Sort of. Mostly not anymore but he was still cute, she could be curious about it and still like Veronica.

Archie’s eyebrows draw together, “uh, you and Veronica? Who even buys friends a huge bouquet of flowers?” he asks.

“They were yellow, Archie, everyone knows that those are friendship flowers,” Betty points out.

“Do you know how much roses cost? No one spends that much on friendship flowers, Betty. So can you help me out with this gay panic or not?” Archie asks.

Betty disagreed with the flowers but Archie was freaking out over this gay panic thing so she sets that aside for the moment to deal with Archie. “Okay, what seems to be the problem?” she asks patiently.

“Okay… okay,” Archie says in a panicky tone, taking a deep breath. “Okay. So you know how Jughead and I are trying the friend thing out again and-”

“ _Seriously_ Archie? Can’t you like… keep it in your pants for like ten seconds?” she asks. First a _teacher_ and now Jughead? She was going to have to warn the poor guy to run. And then there was that asexual thing… what would that do in a relationship? Did not experiencing sexual attraction even affect sex? Were those things related for Jughead at all? She had a lot more questions about that orientation now than when he brought it up with her last week…

“What? I just like people okay? Is that a crime?” Archie asks.

“Your last relationship was a crime, yeah,” she points out. She felt bad for Archie but she was glad that creepy Miss Grundy was out of the picture. Knowing that she even _looked_ at Archie in a sexual way wigged her out and she didn’t want to know more. “Have you… talked to Jughead about this? Because he might have some things to say about this,” Betty says. Like the asexual thing, if that was relevant. She had too many questions without answers about that. She wondered if maybe Jughead would be willing to write an article in the Blue  & Gold about the subject. That would definitely have his voice and she knew that was something he was concerned about.

Archie shakes his head, “whatever Betty. Can you help me out with the Jughead thing or not? Because I don’t really know what’s going on or where this came from, but maybe I want to explore it?” he says, his voice rising as if that was a question.

Betty personally felt like Archie should do a little _less_ exploring given his history but she doesn’t say that to him. “Well… I think that Jughead would be good for you. You two have a lot of history and you know each other pretty well, I think that it could work. Even if it’s a little… sudden,” she says. But she had no place to judge there either. And she knew that Jughead was very against the whole Miss Grundy ‘relationship’ and didn’t hesitate to tell Archie that. Obviously he was willing to look out for Archie even when Archie wasn’t looking out for himself and that’s all that mattered to her. How Archie would reciprocate that she wasn’t so sure, but that was for Jughead to decide.

“You really think we could work out? For real?” Archie asks, eyebrows raised.

“If you worked at it yeah, why not? But talk to Jughead and see where he is with this, okay? Communication is key,” she reminds him.

“Is that why you and Veronica are doing some weird maybe dating maybe not? Because your communication is awesome?” Archie asks.

Betty throws a pillow at him, “alright, enough of you. Time for you to go talk to Jughead instead of pretending that you’re qualified to tell me how to do the relationship thing,” she says, getting up and shooing a protesting Archie out of her room.

*

“My brother is dead!” Cheryl yells suddenly and inexplicably.

“Uh… I’m sorry about that. Really,” Veronica says meaningfully. Betty is impressed by the level of empathy she managed to pull out for a girl she didn’t like regarding a dead sibling she never met.

“Oh for gods sakes you two are dense,” Cheryl snaps, “the two of you are going around moping and whining and crying about how the other one is straight and my brother is _dead_ so just shut up and kiss because life is short. Kiss again,” she throws in when she seems to remember the first kiss.

Betty’s eyebrows go up in sync with Veronica’s, shocked at Cheryl. “We’re waiting,” Kevin adds, giving them a pointed look. Cheryl taps her foot impatiently at them and Betty’s stomach flips over on itself.

“You’re giving me performance anxiety,” she tells them, willing them to turn away with her mind. It doesn’t work very well.

“Betty,” Veronica says, drawing Betty’s attention away from Cheryl’s impatient foot tapping and shrewd glare. She tips her head up and kisses her lightly, sweetly. It wasn’t much like their first kiss but she supposed that had been for attention and fire, not for the purposes of actual affection. Betty personally likes this kiss better. Veronica pulls back and Betty _swears_ she hears Kevin mumble ‘finally’ under his breath. “So, we still have a date at Pops tonight?” she asks, choosing her words deliberately.

“Yeah, obviously,” Betty says, giggling nervously.

*

“Oh my _god_ , Archie is having a gay panic over _Jughead_?” Veronica asks, bursting out laughing.

“Better than his last choice in dating material,” Betty points out but she laughs too because only Archie.

“In his defense Grundy was hot,” Veronica says.

“And a _creep_. What kind of nasty teacher _dates_ the students?” Betty asks, shuddering. Thank _god_ she was gone. She just hoped she didn’t do it again.

“True. Though to be fair no one here has good dating choices, have you heard who Kevin is dating?” she asks, shaking her head. “Seriously, I am the only one here who has lucked out with the apple pie girl next door who is mostly normal.”

Betty ducks her head, “oh, thanks. To be fair I somehow ended up dating the hottest girl is school. Definitely not where I saw myself last year, but I like it,” she says, grinning.

“You better, I’m awesome,” Veronica says, grinning back. Betty agreed. She has always been sort of stuck in her boring, _normal_ comfort zone and Veronica gave her the courage to step out of that a bit and it was nice to do something different. Something that didn’t stick her in a boring box that she hated and her mother loved. Veronica was something bold, and new, and passionate and Betty wanted in on that. The fact that Veronica did too confused the hell out of her but she was more than happy to be along for the ride for as long as it lasted.

*

Jughead paces along Betty’s room nervously, pivoting sharply and going the other way. “I can’t date Archie,” he says in a panicky tone.

“Then don’t date Archie,” Veronica says, lounging on Betty’s bed like she belonged there. That gave Betty all sorts of feeling she hadn’t even known she was capable of until she saw Veronica. She figured she’d just have to accept that Veronica was a wildcard and that she should just deal with the odd but very exciting feelings Veronica brought up.

“I can’t not date Archie,” Jughead says, drawing her attention sadly away from Veronica.

“Uh, then what do you want?” Betty asks.

Jughead throws his hands in the air, “I don’t know! A burger!”

“An Archie burger?” Veronica says, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

That only makes Jughead look confused, “no I don’t _eat_ Archie. I’m not a cannibal,” he says, making a face.

Veronica frowns, “no that’s not… how did you even-” she stammers but betty cuts her off, pretty sure she knew what the issue was.

“It was a sex thing,” she says bluntly.

“What she said because I did _not_ suggest anyone try to literally eat Archie. Ew,” Veronica says, wrinkling her nose.

Jughead shakes his head, “you sexual people, making everything about sex. That burger thing didn’t even make sense,” he mumbles. “And that’s another thing, there’s no _way_ Archie would accept the asexual thing. He’d probably fuck a bagel if it wasn’t weird,” he says.

“Oh Jughead, I don’t think that’s true,” Betty says sympathetically, “I’m sure he’d understand.”

“No, that’s true. He’s so horny he thought the hot for teacher thing was a good plan. I take it you’re the disinterested in sex variety of asexual then?” Veronica says, surprising Jughead and confusing Betty.

“There are… other varieties of asexual?” she asks.

“Well yeah, there’s variety just like there is any other sexuality. So spill it Jughead, less us know what we’re working with,” Veronica says, waving a hand at Jughead to continue speaking.

“I’m mostly indifferent but like… sexy stuff doesn’t really do it for me. Not my thing. How am I supposed to explain that?” Jughead asks.

“We can it out on me because I’m confused,” Betty says. “I mean I get the no sexual attraction thing, that’s pretty basic, but how does that relate to sex specifically for asexuals? Because it sounds complicated and lets face it, Archie isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed with these things.” Also she wanted to know.

“Asexuals don’t to the sexual attraction thing, and some have low libidos, and some have high libidos, some just like sex, and some do it because their partners like it. Pretty much the same as everyone else I think. Do you think Archie would get that? What if he wants to like… well you know. That’s not for me,” Jughead says.

“Tell him to screw a bagel,” Veronica suggests, making Betty burst out laughing. “But seriously, if the sex thing is going to be a thing just tell him to stick in someone else, problem solved,” Veronica says.

Jughead look like a light went off in his head, “you think he’d go for that?”

Betty and Veronica exchange a look and turn back to Jughead, “hell yeah,” they say in sync.

“You should probably give him some limits though,” Veronica adds.

“No teachers,” Betty and Jughead say in sync, surprising each other for a moment before laughing.

*

“Is it a trap? Lay it out for me,” Archie says, looking panicked. Veronica rolls her eyes but Betty, sweet, sweet Betty takes her time with his stupid boy shenanigans.

“It’s not a trap Archie, he just doesn’t care if you sleep with someone else. Unless it’s a teacher,” she says very seriously. Betty cared way too much about explaining why Archie was being an idiot to Archie but that was one of many things Veronica loved about her. And her ass.

“But what if this is like… some weird commitment test?” Archie asks, obviously assuming he’d fail. Veronica resists the urge to roll her eyes at that too. He was cute but he really needed to think things through for longer then the length of his dick.

“Yeah, I’m sure he went through a long period of ‘why am I not like everyone else?’ followed by a ‘good god a boy likes me what do I do’ phase to an ‘oh no I’m not interested in sex what’s going to happen’ panic all to give Archie Andrews a run for his money,” Veronica says sarcastically.

“Okay that sounds stupid when you put it like that,” Archie says. Damn right it did.

Betty sighs dramatically, “just talk to him about any reservations you have and then… do whatever,” she tells him.

Archie takes an embarrassingly long time to nod at that and Veronica can’t help but think she dodged a bullet there. Good kisser or not she was not here for this drama and truth be told Betty had nicer lips anyways. When Archie finally leaves to go talk to Jughead like a normal person Betty turns to Veronica, “I know guys say girls are a lot of drama but do you think they’ve met Archie?” she asks.

Veronica rolls her eyes, “they call girls dramatic but Frollo burned down Paris because Esmeralda gave him a boner,” she points out. Betty throws back her head and laughs, and Veronica takes pride in it, grinning happily.


End file.
